The Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina (UNC) is pleased to submit to AHRQ a competing renewal application for its NRSA T-32 pre- and postdoctoral training program in health services research. Since initiated in 1989, the program has trained an average of four pre- and five postdoctoral fellows per year, including one dental health services research position funded by NIDCR. Although all trainees are affiliated as fellows with the Sheps Center, all predoctoral students are first admitted as candidates to the Ph.D. or Dr.P.H. degree in collaborating academic departments at the UNC, such as health policy, epidemiology, health behavior and health education, biostatistics, maternal and child health, nutrition, economics, geography, sociology, anthropology or political science. Among the proposed changes in the program for this five-year renewal are: addition of two collaborating UNC doctoral programs (Pharmaceutical policy in the School of Pharmacy and public policy in the Graduate School), leading to a request for two additional predoctoral positions for a total of six pre- and five postdoctoral positions per year; additional training in ethical issues in health services research through an annual summer seminar series; additional emphasis on professional development, including career development awards; increased focus on writing and reviewing competitive research proposals; and additional focus on research in health disparities paralleling the broad efforts ongoing at the Sheps Center and at UNC. Dr. Timothy S. Carey will continue as the program director, assisted by four core faculty members. Two of the core faculty are new to the program: Drs. Kathleen Dalton and Morris Weinberger of the UNC Department of Health Policy and Administration. The availability of this training support is a critical component of health services research and training in multiple schools at the University of North Carolina, leading to later successful careers in academics and health policy. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]